Another Odd Twist In DeLaney Versus Mendenhall

The Indiana Lawyer's Jennifer Nelson reveals a new fact in the decades old dispute between the DeLaney family and the Mendenhall family, which culminated in an attack by 38-year-old Augustus "Gus" Mendenhall on State Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) on Halloween Day that left DeLaney with serious bodily injuries. When the younger Gus Mendenhall finished law school in 2008, you'll never guess who was assigned to conduct Gus' character and fitness examination for admission to the Indiana bar. That would be Kathleen DeLaney, daughter of Ed. "He requested a different attorney because he claimed he had a conflict of interest," Nelson writes. Can you blame him?

When I faced my character and fitness examination back in 1993, a prominent, semi-retired attorney who lived on the City's far northside conducted my interview. I met him at his home, and we sat on his sun porch on the back side of his house while he interviewed me. It was easy to respect this individual and understand why he had been selected by the Indiana Supreme Court to interview candidates for admission to the bar. Gus Mendenhall had to be enraged by the thought that that the young Kathleen DeLaney would be given this task. As he perceived it, Kathleen's parents had used their political clout to convince the Marion Co. Prosecutor's Office to illegally seize his father's property and deprive him of it for years. When he finally got his property back many years later, he was told by our court system there was no remedy to compensate him for the damages he sustained from the illegal seizure because the prosecutor was immune from prosecution. And as he prepared to enter the legal profession, the person who would stand in judgment of him was the daughter of the two prominent political insiders who he believed had put his family through a living hell.

Nelson's story notes that Ed DeLaney was not a party to the lawsuit then-Marion Co. Prosecutor Steve Goldsmith brought against Gus' father, relying on Indiana's civil RICO statute. Ed's client, the DeBartolo Group, owned Lafayette Square mall and had sought to enforce a restrictive covenant against Mendenhall's father, who owned the building and had leased some of the space to another business that operated an adult bookstore. Nelson omits the fact that DeLaney's wife, Ann, worked as the head of the sex crimes unit within the prosecutor's office during the legal battle against his father. After Mendenhall's arrest, Ann DeLaney repeated the false claim to area reporters that Mendenhall's father was a pornographer in reference to the old case, an unfair characterization that Gus had complained about when he met with reporters following his arrest. There is a bit of irony in Mendenhall's father's property being seized using a law intended to aid prosecutors in combating organized crime. Edward DeBartolo, Sr., whose company was represented by Ed DeLaney, had long been suspected of having ties to organized crime. The DeBartolo family had to give up control of the San Francisco Forty-Niners after Edward DeBartolo, Jr. pleaded guilty in charges arising out of the federal bribery and corruption case against former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards.

Nelson's story quotes from a probable cause affidavit stating that Gus Mendenhall had used the name "Victor White" when he first contacted Ed DeLaney about representing a Russian business interest in the purchase of property in Carmel. "He claimed he was looking at the property on behalf of wealthy Russian businessmen," Nelson writes. "Because DeLaney occasionally has Russian clients and is fluent in Russian, he didn't think it seemed suspicious." Nelson omits Mendenhall's claim to reporters that his "Russian clients" were interested in laundering money for the Russian mob or the fact that DeLaney had attended spy school while serving in the Navy during the 1960s. "When they met, Augustus Mendenhall was wearing a wig, gloves and a strange coat," she writes. He was also carrying a bag. It's unclear why DeLaney didn't simply drive off from the parking lot where they met after he had an opportunity to observe his strange appearance.

Mendenhall will have to face the serious criminal felony charges filed against him in Hamilton County, including attempted murder, with the assistance of a court-appointed public defender according to Nelson. His trial is set for March 2, 2010. The fact that Mendenhall won't be receiving any sympathetic coverage from the local news media was self-evident during last week's broadcast of "Indiana Week In Review", which is moderated by WISH-TV's Jim Shella and where one of the show's panelists is Ann DeLaney. Jim Shella falsely stated during the show that Mendenhall confessed to the attempted murder charge. "The attacker has confessed." The fact is that Mendenhall never confessed to the crime of attempted murder, an impression Shella clearly tried to leave with his listeners. It was an awkward discussion for the panelists because of Ann's presence on the panel that was obviously not going to lead to a fair and open discussion of the events that occurred on Halloween Day and the 25-year-old case among the panelists. Moments before taking up this discussion, Shella and the panel discussed the passage of the Wishard referendum. There was no disclosure to listeners that panelist Mike McDaniels works for a law firm that is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to do work for the Health & Hospital Corporation. Yeah, the deck is stacked against folks like the Mendenhalls.